Admiration
by Mysteryguy12
Summary: Members of the great Strawhat Pirate fleet look back on the reasons they joined the Strawhats. Set fictionally after Luffy has become the Pirate King. Short, one shots from original character POVs.


Admiration

"Just hold out a little longer!"

All around me, I can hear the shouts of my crewmates. The sound of blades clashing fills the air with a rapid, violent staccato. I duck under an oncoming blade, feeling the wind rush over the top of my head as I dart in and thrust my fist into my opponent's gut. He lets out a gasp and falls to his knees. I quickly look around. One of my crewmates is wounded, fending off two men all by himself. I rush toward them and ram into one of the attackers, sending him crashing to the floor.

"Keep it up! It won't be much longer!"

The man I saved smiles and nods. He turns and jumps onto the back of the man I just knocked over. I see movement out of the corner of my eye and raise my cutlass just in time to catch another man's swing. Our blades crash together and join the symphony of battle. My opponent looks at me with his one good eye and sneers.

"Ye shouldn't of wandered so far out, matey! This here'll be yer grave!"

I force him back and make a quick chop to the side of his neck. He crumples to the ground. I take a moment to breathe while I survey the scene. The tide of the battle seems to be turning. It is clear that our crew is better trained at close quarter combat. The staccato of ringing blades is beginning to slow as one by one, my crewmates dispatches of the enemy. After a moment, I spot another man, pinned down and outnumbered. I jump into the fray.

Together, we drive back the two swordsmen. Be back them up to the port side railing. Without any hesitation, they climb over and jump off the ship. I let out a sigh. I can't hear the clanging of swords anymore and I turn around. The enemy lies strewn at our feet.

"How are we?" I shout.

"Eight injured!" responds the first mate. "Lisa and Jin are in bad shape, They need medical attention right now!"

"Alright," I begin. "Bring them below deck and get them fixed up. Marcus, get over the helm and…"

Before I can finish giving out orders, there is a loud crash. Thunder rips through the air and the ship shakes violently. I nearly fall over, but catch myself on the railing. I see several of the crew fall to their knees, clutching at wounds. I hear wood splintering below my feet.

"What the hell!?"

From the starboard side, I hear loud laughter. I rush across the ship and look out over the railing. The ship that attacked us is drifting lazily, hardly 50 yards away from us.

"Did they just fire on us? They've got to have half their crew on here right now!" one of the men screams.

A well dressed man stand on the deck of the enemy ship, smiling widely. Around him, there are another 20 men laughing loudly. The well dressed man smiles wider and opens his mouth. "Second round, FIRE!"

Thunder rips through the air and I see the cannons on their ship explode. A split second later, our starboard side takes the hit. I hear wood splinter and the bottom decks are racked with explosions.

"Shit!" I jump up into the rigging and stare out at the enemy ship. "What the hell are you doing!? We've got half your crew over here! They'll die if you keep shooting!"

The captain of the other ship only grins wider and crosses his arm. "Like I give a damn. If they were dumb enough to get captured, I don't need them in my crew, ain't that right boys?"

The rest of his crew erupts into shouts of approval and laughter.

"Ain't no damn skin off my nose if they drown with ya!"

I grit my teeth in rage.

"Ain't no damn skin off your nose?" I shout back. "They're you're crew! They're your nakama!" I point down at the mass of passed out enemy crew members. "What the hell are you doing saying shit like that!?"

"I don't need to listen to dead men talk," the man yells back at me. "Fire round three boys!"

Their cannons fire again and I hear screams from below. The ship shakes furiously. After a few seconds, there is another explosion, larger this time. I jump down off the rigging, struggling to stay on my feet.

"Everyone to the fore of the ship! Help those who are injured!" I rush to the back of the ship, grabbing two uninjured men as I go. "You're with me, we're going below deck to help our anyone down there."

"Yes sir!" the two men reply immediately.

I kick down the door leading below deck and charge downstairs. As I had thought, fire is beginning to spread. "I knew it…they hit the ammunition stock. Let's hurry, check every room! Save anyone you can, but stay alive!" The two men nod and then split up, running in different directions. I head deeper down into the ship. There isn't as much fire on the floor below, but there is a lot of water. I curse to myself as I wade through the knee high water and begin checking the cabins.

Five rooms down and I haven't found anyone yet. Kicking down the sixth door, I'm hit with a wave of water. I brace myself and stay standing. From the room, I can hear sputtering. "Who's in here! Hey! Where are you?"

A weak voice echoes from the back of the cabin. I wipe the water from my eyes and step inside. In the back corner, a young man is clinging to a large barrel. "Help me!" he cries.

"Alright," I say, speaking slowly and calmly. "Let go of the barrel. Can you stand? Are you ok to walk?"

"I'm scared," he whimpers. "I'm gonna die! We're gonna die!"

"We're not gonna die," I say, wading through the water in the room. It's up to my waist now. "I'm coming to get you. Hold on."

"What the hell does it matter?" The man is crying. "Even if we get to the deck, the whole ship's gonna sink. We're fucked!"

"We're gonna make it, alright. Don't worry about it." I've reached the other side of the room now. "Give me your hand.

"No…what's the point? We're all going to die!"

"No we're not, now give me your hand."

"We're not going to survive, there's no way!"

"Would you shut up!?" I scream. The man whimpers, but grows quiet. I grab his hand and sling his arm over my shoulder. "We're not gonna die. We're gonna get outta here and survive. You got that?" I can hear him sniffling as I start to walk back through the cabin. "We're pirates damn it, and we're damn proud of it. You really telling me you're ready to die?"

I hear another crash and the ship shakes so hard that I stumble forward. My head submerges under water and I breathe in a lot of it. When I get to my feet again, I'm coughing hard.

"Oh shit! They're gonna fucking sink us! I knew it, we're gonna die!"

I step out of the cabin just as the room collapses. Water sloshes against my back, almost sending me back under, but I make for the stairs with sure footsteps.

"Is that fire? Oh my god, the whole fucking floor is on fire. Captain, what the hell are we doing. Who are we fooling, we're gonna die. All of us are going to die."

"What the hell did I say," I growl, stepping up out of the water and into the inferno of the next floor. "We are not gonna die. No way are we gonna die."

"But…"

I start running for the stairs. "I saw a crew in a more difficult position than this once." The flames scorch at my feet as I run. "Only 8 of them in the whole damn crew. Up against 200 marine officers, captain and commander level, every one of them."

Ahead of me, the flames start to roar. I hear another rumble of thunder as the enemy ship fires another round.

"Trapped on a bridge, raging currents below them, fighting for their lives!"

A cannon ball crashes through the wall not far from me. Burning wood showers us, burning my skin, but I grit my teeth and keep stumbling toward the stairs.

"There was no escape for them! No ship to sail away on, no allies on the way to save them!"

The heat assaults me from every side.

"Their captain fell, exhausted, unable to move, separated from the group. The marine ships aimed their cannons at him, ready to kill him."

Ahead of us, I see the stairs erupt into flames. They crack loudly and then crash down to the ground, nothing more than a pile of burning lumber. I stop where I stand.

"Well that's it," the man on my back says. "It doesn't matter how your story turned out. It doesn't matter how they got out of that situation. It doesn't help us one god damn bit."

I remain silent, watching the ship burn around us. Behind me, water is beginning to seep up through the stairwell.

"Even if there's billows of smoke, we can still see the sky…" I whisper. Above us, the ship is crumpling. Smoke is rising all around me. But through it all, the brilliant blue sky above is still visible.

"We can still see the ocean…"

I look starboard. The burning holes in the ship's hull lead out into the brilliant blue ocean. I hoist the man on my back higher until I've got a better grip on him.

"Don't act like you're going to die!" I start running toward the broken stairs. The man on my back struggles, screaming and crying. I run for the flames, my muscles aching, sweat pouring in my eyes. "Don't act like you're about to die!"My scorched feet hit the pile of burning rubble. It starts to break, but I climb it quickly. I can feel the fire burning me, catching my flesh. I bite the inside of my mouth and leap upwards.

"IT AIN'T LIKE IT'S HELL IN HERE!"

We crash through the burning wood above us and land with a thud on the deck. I collapse. The man on my back falls away from me, struggling to his feet. I lie there, motionless, feeling myself burn.

"Survive! And we'll all go back together!" I scream through my parched throat.

My vision starts to go black as I feel my consciousness drift away. I think back to those words I just repeated to the crew. I remember it all so vividly, that day the Buster Call was set on Enies Lobby. I had been a master chief petty officer in the Marine Navy. I stood on one of the ships and watched as our captains and commanders fought the seven members of the Strawhat Pirates. In another broken building, Rob Lucci of CP9 battled the captain, Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy fell. And then I watched him, the man I admire more than anyone else in the world fall to his knees and cry out to him.

"It ain't like it's hell in here," I heard him scream. It ain't like it's hell in here. Win, and we'll all go back together. Something changed in me when I heard those words. Being a Marine wasn't enough anymore. I wanted that freedom, that believe in life and will to survive. I wanted to sail with people like that.

I dedicated my life from that day toward finding the Strawhat Pirates. I followed them as far as I could on my own, but lost them eventually. After that, I did the next best thing. I became a pirate myself. Never became well known. I was the captain of my own crew. We lived freely, not doing anything particularly exciting, but living free.

Years later, we heard of Monkey D. Luffy's success. He found Gold Roger's treasure. He had become the pirate king. The Marine's soon disintegrated afterwards, and the greatest age of piracy the world had ever seen came into existence.

I joined the Strawhats a few years later. I finally met Usopp, and Luffy, and all the others I had seen fighting on that bridge so many years ago. I cried that day. I fell to my knees and explained to them how they had changed my life. Usopp knelt down with me and smiled. He told me he wish they had known I had been following them sooner. There's always room in the Strawhats for another man who loves freedom.

Since that day, I've sailed under commander Usopp's third division of the Strawhat fleet. We sail to discover, and seek freedom wherever we go, looking after each other as a crew, and as nakama. To this day though, I've lived my life with commander Usopp's words in my mind. I open my mouth to speak them one last time.

"It ain't like it's hell in here. Win, and we'll all go back together."

I feel a hand rest on my shoulder.

"That's right."

I open my eyes.

"You've done well. I'll take it from here. Just rest."

I smile and close my eyes. "Yes sir, commander Usopp."

"We got your call and I've already shot down the other ship. So you just lay here. We've got a doctor that trained under commander Chopper himself. You're gonna be just fine."

Commander Usopp's deep voice is comforting and confident as it always has been.

"You're crew is all alive and well."

"It's thanks to you, commander," I whisper.

"No," Usopp replies with a grin. "I just showed up in the nick of time. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have made it in time. You're a great nakama, captain."

I smile a little bit and drift off, assured now that I will be just fine. Commander Chopper's medical prowess is known world wide, and anyone who trained under him is just as capable. This is what I'd been searching for my whole life. This sort of freedom, and these sort of friend. In spite of my physical state, I felt happy. This is what it means to be part of the Strawhat Pirates. This is what it means to be a nakama of the great pirate king himself.

This is what it means to be free.


End file.
